


No Better Version of Me

by 7_Magpies



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Watcher Entertainment RPF
Genre: Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:26:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28888320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7_Magpies/pseuds/7_Magpies
Summary: Waking up inside of Ryan's head is only the first weird thing that's happened to Shane today.(Rating may change in later chapters. Who knows. I don't.)
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej, Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 28
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Book Club, all of whom convinced me to finally start writing this 90s sci-fi show plot of a fic. Hope you like it!
> 
> Title from Hozier's "Jackie and Wilson" because reasons

Shane sat up, rubbing his head. He wasn’t sure where he was or how he’d gotten… wherever he was, but he felt pretty rough. He opened his eyes and was even more confused. He was sitting on the sidewalk of a residential street. It was mid-afternoon and the concrete was warm beneath his hand from the sun. He pushed up into a standing position and looked around, recognizing the area but not  _ quite  _ sure how. That was when he realized he was hearing a strange noise and turned around. There hadn’t been anyone when he’d first looked around, he was sure, but now there was someone in the driveway of the house behind him playing basketball. A very familiar someone. 

“Ryan?”

His friend turned and flashed a wide smile at him. He was wearing a Lakers jersey and basketball shorts, and he caught the basketball as he walked towards Shane. As he grew closer, however, he seemed to realize something and his face fell. “Wait. I’ve never seen you out here.”

“Funny story… I don’t know how I got here.” He realized then how he recognized the neighborhood: it was Ryan’s parents’. The house that he was in the driveway of was Ryan’s. “I don’t know how I got back to LA.”

Ryan’s brow furrowed and he put the basketball under his arm. “What are you talking about? Wait a second…” He stepped closer to Shane, and Shane realized something: Ryan had grown. Like,  _ really _ grown. They were the same height. Shane almost lost his (already unsteady) balance when the realization dawned. 

“Whoa - when did you get tall?”

Ryan’s brow furrowed as he, looked closer at Shane’s face. “Shane?”

“Yeah? Who else would I be?”

“Uh… Do you know where you are?”

“Your parent’s house, right? How did you grow half a foot since the last time I saw you?” Shane realized he couldn’t  _ quite _ remember the last time he’d seen Ryan, his short-term memory was just fuzzy images that he just couldn’t focus on before they slipped away. He decided to cross that bridge later, though, and focus on his friend’s sudden (rather late-age) growth spurt. 

Ryan seemed unaware of Shane’s difficulties because he looked to be struggling with his own. He finally let out a long breath. “I actually… kind of… didn’t. Y’see, you’re in my head. Well, you’re in  _ Ryan’s  _ head.”

“What do you mean?” This was shaping up to be  _ really  _ weird, and Shane felt the strange urge to pinch his arm to see if he was dreaming. 

“I mean that we’re in Ryan’s head. I’m always here, of course, but you’re definitely  _ not _ supposed to be.”

Shane did pinch his arm then. It hurt. He was still in the driveway, though, and Ryan was still tall and looking at him with a confused expression. Shane shook his head, trying to figure out what Ryan (Ryan?) was saying. “It is  _ so weird _ to talk to you when we’re the same height, dude.”

Ryan laughed a little bit. “Nice to meet you. I’m Ryan’s athleticism. I’m the part of his mind that comes to the surface whenever he’s watching or playing sports.”

_ Figures that Ryan would have part of his brain dedicated to sports, _ Shane thought. Then he realized something was weird. “Wait, why are you tall?”

“Because whenever I play basketball I feel like I’m taller and stronger than any other time.” 

Shane realized that not only was this Ryan taller, but his muscles were more defined where the jersey was exposing them. He worked hard to pull his eyes back up to this Ryan’s face. “So you’re how he imagines himself when he plays sports?”

“Pretty much. There’s a bunch of us. I don’t know how many exactly, it’s pretty much constantly changing. Most of the rest of them will be inside, though,” he said with a thumb pointed at the house.

“Right.” He felt like he should go inside, but it felt… invasive. This was Ryan’s  _ head. _ “Do you have any idea how I got here? Or how I get out?”

Ryan shrugged. “No idea, you’ll have to ask another one. Good luck, though!” With that, he started dribbling again and aimed a long shot at the basketball goal set up beside the driveway. It made it in perfectly.

_ This is so weird, _ Shane thought as he watched Ryan for a few moments before stepping onto the porch.  _ Wait. Am I supposed to knock? _

Before he could decide, the door was opened by yet another Ryan. Luckily, this one was normal height. 

“What in the hell is going on?” asked the Ryan in the doorway.

Shane couldn’t help shrugging. “Great question. I was hoping someone could help me out with that.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane remembers what happened before his adventure in Ryan's head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm here! I know it's been a while, but I come with the offering of a longer chapter!

He heard some movement and talking inside the house, and looked over Ryan’s shoulder to see several more Ryans sitting around the island whispering amongst themselves and watching him. There was almost half a dozen, and despite already expecting that on some level, actually  _ seeing _ it was weird as fuck.

“Can I… um… come in?”

The Ryan at the door stepped back and gestured for Shane to enter ahead of him. 

“This is so weird,” said one Ryan. He was shorter than the rest, and skinnier, too. His voice was higher pitched than the Ryan Shane knew, too. 

“Why are you… small?” Shane blurted.

“I’m the anxious part of Ryan,” he answered, wringing his hands together. “When he’s scared he feels small.”

Shane was overcome with the need to hug this small Ryan, but he shook it off, focusing instead on how damn  _ weird _ this all was.

The Ryan that had opened the door walked to the island to stand with the rest of the Ryans. He looked Shane up and down. “So you’re actually Shane, and you somehow got in here?”

All Shane could think to do was nod.

“How could that happen? I need to go figure out what the last thing that happened is.” He started walking away and entered a hallway. 

Shane ran after him. “Wait, where are you going?” He stopped in his tracks when he rounded the corner in the hallway. It stretched on as far as he could see and was lined with doorways. “What… what the fuck?” 

Other-Ryan turned back to face him. “Each of these rooms contain Ryan’s thoughts concerning specific topics.”

“But… how did this fit inside this house?”

Other-Ryan simply raised an eyebrow. “Are you really trying to apply logic to Ryan’s mind? Really?”

“Good point,” Shane conceded. “Where are we going?”

“Ryan’s memories. This way.” He led Shane down a little ways before turning and walking through a door on the left. It looked exactly the same as every other door, but other-Ryan seemed pretty confident. He walked in and was taken aback again. The room was large, and looked a lot like a library with a bunch of shelves holding books and fies. “These are Ryan’s memories about cases he has presented for ‘Unsolved,’” other-Ryan explained as he found a specific file and opened it.

“So… who are you?”

“I’m the part of Ryan that comes to the surface when he’s researching,” he answered without looking up. 

“So… you’re, like, smart Ryan?” 

“Not exactly,” he said smiling a little bit, looking up over the top of the file. “I guess you could say I’m his focus. You would probably still think I’m crazy, because I do still believe in ghosts and demons.”

“I’m Ryan’s skepticism,” came a voice that Shane couldn’t quite place immediately. He turned to see--himself? 

“What… what the hell?”

Other-Shane looked him over. “So you’re the real one, huh?”

Other-Ryan cleared his throat. “This is Ryan’s voice of skepticism. When he doubts his evidence, he hears your voice.”

Nodding slowly, Shane looked long and hard at the other him. “This is… this is so weird.”

“This is the most excitement I’ve ever seen,” other-Shane said with a wide smile. “I’m usually just hanging out in here.”

“Ryan often thinks over his evidence and doubts it,” other-Ryan explained. “Skepticism here usually stays in this room and finds the things Ryan’s unsure of.”

For some reason, the thought that Ryan doubted himself so much--and used Shane’s voice to do it--made his face fall. “I didn’t realize…” 

“It’s okay,” other-Shane said, leaning against the wall. “I’m usually pretty quiet unless you guys are on-location or he’s researching and trying to think of what you’re going to say about the topic. The rest of his doubts usually take over the rest of the time.”

Before Shane could ask about  _ that _ , other-Ryan spoke up. “Here we go!” He tossed a case file over to Shane. It didn’t fly through the air like a stack of paper should—it all stayed together and Shane caught it perfectly. He frowned a little bit. 

“Dude, don’t apply physics here,” other-Shane said. “Trust me.” 

Shane gave a half-smile and opened the file. It looked like the scripts Ryan read from on “Unsolved,” and contained all the information about the location they were at. 

As he looked at the picture, he remembered. 

——-

“Cozy,” Shane mused, elbowing Ryan. 

“Yeah. Very ‘early UNABomber,’” he shot back, not looking away from the wood cabin. 

“Come on, what is there to be scared of? Ghosts? Demons? Witches?  _ Oh my!” _

Ryan rolled his eyes, even as he chuckled under his breath. “Little bit of this, little bit of that.” He gestured for Shane to walk in first. 

Shane gave a mock curtsy, watching how Ryan’s eyes crinkled despite his attempts not to smile, and entered the one-room cabin. 

He looked around at the rotting wood and fairly suspicious smudges on the walls and floor. “Oh, wow, this is a helluva fixer-upper. Very ‘before’ shot on HGTV.”

Ryan rolled his eyes again. “Shut up, Shane.”

“So, why are we here? I mean, lovely as it is…” he made a show of running a finger across the windowsill and frowning at the dust left on his finger.

“This is a really fun one. Apparently, this building used to belong to a cult that practiced dark magic.”

“Only you would think of a  _ cult _ that practices  _ dark magic  _ as fun. You know this, right?”

“Yup,” Ryan replied, grinning up at his friend in a way that absolutely didn’t make Shane’s heart do a funny dance in his chest. Not at all.

“What kind of magic?”

“There are reports of protection spells—wait, don’t!” Ryan cut himself off when he looked up to see Shane’s, for lack of a better term,  _ shit-eating _ grin.

“Protection spells, you say?” He started stomping around, trying to be as nosy as possible. “Hello, cultists!” he called. “It sure would be a shame if a couple of assholes started snooping around in your  _ top secret cult clubhouse _ , wouldn’t it?”

Ryan waved his arms, trying to get Shane to be quiet. “Don’t!”

“What? They can’t do anything! Can you?” he asked the otherwise empty building. He looked over to see Ryan’s wide eyes and shaking hands. He walked back to him, smiling. “Ryan, I’m fine, see?” He did a quick dance step with jazz hands to prove his point.

“Whatever, let’s just get it over with.” 

“You’re shaking pretty bad. Are you scared or cold?”

“Yes.” 

Shane chuckled and followed his lead the rest of the night.

They went back to the motel at about two in the morning, both in the strange state of exhaustion and excitement that usually came after being on location. 

Ryan walked into their shared room and belly-flopped onto the bed. “I’m so damn tired.”

“Did all the ghosts we faced tonight exhaust you?”

He could practically hear Ryan’s eye roll as he kicked off his boots at the door. 

“I get sleepy when I’m cold.”

“At least take your boots off. There’s no telling what all you have on them.”

“I don’t wanna,” Ryan practically whined, rolling onto his back.

Shane sighed and walked to his friend, kneeling at his feet without even thinking about it. He untied Ryan’s shoes and pulled them off, setting them beside the bed, without noticing how quiet Ryan was. 

Looking up, Shane saw that Ryan was leaning back on his elbows, looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Shane wasn’t sure what to say, realizing that he was kneeling in front of his friend (that he absolutely wasn’t a little in love with, no way) and what it must look like. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again and stood, getting sweatpants out of his duffel and changing in the bathroom. When he came back out after about ten minutes (one to change, nine to hold his head in his hands and wonder what the hell just happened) Ryan was in his bed, breathing steadily. His clothes were on the floor and his bag open. 

Shane sat on his own bed, facing Ryan, for a moment.  _ I wish I knew what you’re thinking. _

——-

“Oh. Shit.” Shane said to the other-him and other-Ryan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're still having fun! I have no idea when the next chapter will be added. Hopefully soon :D
> 
> If you're enjoying this please leave kudos and comments, it may help me be a little quicker with the next update ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Now that I have you hooked I regret to inform you that I do not have much more of this written, nor any idea when the next chapter will be posted. I'm hoping positive feedback here will help me in the motivation department, since I am presently sorely lacking there. 
> 
> Which is to say that kudos and comments are greatly appreciated <3


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